Sunwest road projects in Antique lack required ECC

By Rjay Zuriaga Castor

Five road projects in Laua-an, Antique, connected to Sunwest Inc., a company co-owned by resigned party-list lawmaker Zaldy Co, have been found to have violated environmental regulations, according to the Environmental Management Bureau Western Visayas (EMB-6).

In a notice of violation dated Oct. 22 and obtained by Daily Guardian, EMB-6 informed the Antique District Engineering Office that the five environmentally critical projects were implemented without the required Environmental Compliance Certificate.

Three of the projects were completed in 2023 and 2024, while the remaining two are still under construction, with a combined cost of PHP 590 million.

EMB-6 said the violations were discovered during a site investigation conducted Aug. 27–28, 2025.

The projects run through the Central Panay Mountain Range, the longest and largest mountain range on Panay Island and in Western Visayas.

The mountain range covers a large portion of eastern Antique province, western Iloilo, western Capiz, and western Aklan.

The range extends about 170 kilometers from north to south and roughly 34 kilometers from east to west.

It covers a significant portion of eastern Antique, western Iloilo, western Capiz, and western Aklan.

The CPMR is being considered for designation as a protected area under the National Integrated Protected Areas System Act of 1992, the law governing the establishment and management of protected areas in the Philippines.

The notice of violation cited non-compliance with Presidential Decree 1586, or the Philippine Environmental Impact Statement System, which prohibits any person, partnership, or corporation from undertaking an environmentally critical project without first securing an ECC.

An ECC ensures that projects with significant environmental impacts follow mitigation measures before implementation.

The violation also cited non-compliance with Item 3.4.1 of EMB Memorandum Circular 2014-005, which requires all new road construction projects longer than 2 kilometers to secure an ECC.

The Sunwest road projects range from 2.46 to 4.68 kilometers in length.

A MAJOR WIN

Amlig Alliance Antique welcomed the EMB-6 findings, calling the development a “step toward legal and ecological accountability.”

“AMLIG emphasizes that while this is a pivotal first step, it marks the beginning of the fight for full ecological restoration and regulatory accountability,” the group said.

Amlig said its own investigation showed that the road networks were not aligned with the Provincial Land Use Plan and may have been built to facilitate gold mining in the area.

The group earlier condemned at least 14 road projects worth PHP 1.27 billion inside the ancestral domain of the Iraynon-Bukidnon in Laua-an for proceeding without Free and Prior Informed Consent.

The projects, constructed since 2020 along the Laua-an–Bugasong mountain corridor, allegedly violated the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act and caused environmental damage across 14 upland communities.

Members of the Iraynon-Bukidnon in Maybunga reported silted rivers and damaged farmlands as a result of the projects.

Tiffany (not her real name), a community member, filed a formal complaint with the Commission on Human Rights (CHR)-Western Visayas in October.

In her letter, she said heavy rains in August worsened earlier project damage, burying about 5,000 square meters of her family’s rice fields in mud and affecting 12 other Indigenous People-owned plots.

She said the affected lands fall within the community’s Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title and that attempts to seek compensation from Sunwest were rejected, with company representatives demanding proof of CADT ownership.

Tiffany also said the Free and Prior Informed Consent process for the project had only recently begun, with no Certification Precondition issued and no clear community participation.

Amlig said the projects are now under investigation by the Commission on Human Rights.

SUNWEST’S PROJECTS IN LAUA-AN

Daily Guardian previously reported that Sunwest has secured numerous government infrastructure contracts in Laua-an and Bugasong, overlapping with areas where another Co-owned company, Sunwest Water and Electric Co. (SUWECO), operates or plans hydropower projects.

In 2013, SUWECO launched Panay Island’s first hydropower facility, the PHP 1.4 billion Villasiga-1 plant in Bugasong, with an installed capacity of 8.08 megawatts, and signed a 20-year power supply agreement with the Antique Electric Cooperative that same year.

SUWECO plans nine mini-hydropower projects across Antique and Aklan with a combined investment of about PHP 9 billion and an estimated total capacity of 50 megawatts.

The planned facilities include the 9.4-megawatt Villasiga 2 Hydroelectric Project in Bugasong, the 2-megawatt Guiamon San Ramon Hydropower Project in Laua-an, the 3-megawatt Dalanas Project in Barbasa, and the 2.1-megawatt Tibiao Project in Tibiao.

Sunwest has been awarded 22 projects in Laua-an and 19 in Bugasong, making the two upland towns its primary project hubs in Antique.

In Laua-an, 18 of the 22 projects involve road construction, mostly opening interior routes in remote barangays.

In Bugasong, 17 of the 19 contracts are also for road construction.